K-Rino

Eric Kaiser (born September 9, 1970), better known by his stage name K-Rino, is an American rapper from Houston, Texas. He founded the South Park Coalition, and John Nova Lomax of the Houston Press described him as "the conscience of Houston rap, king of the Houston battle rappers," and a "true pioneer of Southern hip-hop." K-Rino has released over 20 solo albums and still counting.   K-Rino grew up in South Park, a neighborhood in Houston, Texas. He began rapping in 1983 and by 1984 he was participating in rap battles and talent shows around the city of Houston. Two years later, he formed a group called Real Chill with two classmates, G.T. and Preppy J, and released a 12” single called “Rockin’It in 1987”. It was also in 1987 that he created the S.P.C. (South Park Coalition) which consisted of several rappers from the area, most of whom attended school with him. K-Rino attended Sterling High School in South Park. Real Chill disbanded in 1988 and that same year he was introduced to another local rapper/producer named Dope-E. In 1988 K-Rino became a part of Dope-E's C.O.D. They released a project in 1990 titled Cummin'Out Doggin'. The group recorded, traveled and performed for 3 years before Dope-E went solo, joining Ganksta N-I-P who had recently signed with Rap-A-Lot records.   K-Rino says when he started out in the industry he was no different from most artists trying to get a record deal, but he says as his knowledge of how the industry works increased,it turned him off. He said the lack of creative control was the biggest turn off, he said "I don't like people telling me what I can or can't say..plus I like to own 100% of my work.."    In 1992, he and his father (Larry Vaughn), started a label called Electric City Records. In 1993, he released his debut solo album titled 'Stories from the Black Book' This album garnered him a large underground following in the southern region. He followed that up with the album 'Danger Zone' in 1995.   In 1997 K-Rino signed with Cerebral Records and began production on his 3rd album. Disputes over creative control led to an eventual split between him and the label. The album was released without K-Rino's cooperation and many of the songs were changed. Eventually, Cerebral Records agreed to let him out of the contract and allowed him to return to his Electric City label exclusively. The album was never given a name by K-Rino himself and Cerebral Records released it as a self-titled CD 'K-Rino (album)'.   In 1999, K-Rino released his 4th album 'No Mercy'. It was released on Electric City Records. The original title was 'Payback', which was initially intended to be a concept album geared toward lashing out against Cerebral Records. The 'Payback' title was changed to 'No Mercy' and the album was released in January 2000. Many of the 'diss' songs that were directed at Cerebral Records were left off the album. The 'No Mercy' album represented a return to independence and creative control for K-Rino.   In 2003, K-Rino started a new label called 'Black Book International'. As well as releasing K-Rino's solo albums, the label has also been responsible for releases by The 144 ELiTE, Rapper K., Sniper and Section A; all of which featured appearances from K-Rino. He began to hit his creative stride and started to release an average of 2-3 projects a year making him one of the most prolific artists in hip hop. In 2008 he released 4 albums, 3 of which were part of a 3 disc series entitled 'Triple Darkness'. 2009 was the year his album 'Solitary Confinement' was recorded and released. This CD featured his most popular and controversial song "Grand Deception", which has amassed well over 1 million views on YouTube. K-Rino said "Well I'm a believer in the teachings of the honorable Elijah Muhammad and I've learned so much under that body of knowledge and wisdom so I wanted to put a song together that covered a lot of falsehoods and unknown information that I was blessed to learn. When I say unknown I mean unknown to the average person in the street. Naturally, the people who perpetuate the lies know the truth but a lot of that B.S. has been passed over as facts for years... So 'Grand Deception' was me just combining several categories of info in an attempt to expose the perpetrators of it."    In 2010, K-Rino released his first double disc studio album titled "Annihilation Of The Evil Machine". This is the album K-Rino has described as being his best work.   In 2011, K-Rino released two studio albums "Alien Baby", and "The Day Of The Storm".   "Deeper Elevation", and "80 Minute Eternity" were released in 2012.   In 2013, K-Rino released three albums: "The Maven", "theRAPeutic" and "Plantation Rebellion".   South Park Coalition (or S.P.C.) is a coalition of Houston hip hop rappers which K-Rino started in 1986, wanting to unite the talent in his South Park neighborhood and the city of Houston. As a whole, they have released a total of over 100 albums, and 2 group studio albums ("Personal Vendetta" in 2002 and "Packin Heat" in 2003).   Many members of the SPC can be seen in the photography portfolio of New York photographer Peter Beste. Many members appeared in a 2007 documentary titled Screwed in Houston produced by VBS/Vice Magazine that details the history of the Houston rap scene, which was also Co-Produced by Beste.   The website 29-95 placed "Book Number 7" on their Favourite Houston Albums of the Decade article and wrote "Houston's greatest rap treasure is a guy who doesn't own a car (fancy or otherwise), doesn't wear jewelry and has never left the South Park neighborhood that is his home and his inspiration.   In the same year, the song "Grand Deception" was listed on "Best HipHop Songs in 2009 – A Top 25 list" by Kevin Nottingham. It reached #12.   In 2012, the album "Deeper Elevation" was a staple in the same website's "Top 10 Smaller/Slept-On Albums: 2012".   In September 2013, K-Rino's latest album "The Rapeutic" was published. Almost at the same time and surprising to the fans, "Plantation Rebellion" was published along with "The Rapeutic".   In 2013, hip-hop producing legend DJ Premier voted the song "Antagonistic Radio" as the #12 hip-hop song of the year.   In 2006, K-Rino was interviewed by HipHop4Eva where he described his favourite artists growing up: "It started out being singers like Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Prince, then as Hip Hop came to birth, my early influences were Run-DMC, T-La Rock, Sugar Hill Gang, KRS-One to name a few. Sam Cooke is also a major influence, along with Dolemite."   In the same interview K describes the importance of storyteling in not just his rhymes but in hip hop generally:   Storytelling is a lost art in rap. Not many do it anymore. Storytelling is a testament to a writer's creativity, all great writers have a great imagination. So you have to be able to create a plot that people can visualize. With a movie, you can see whats going on but when you can make someone see what you're saying as you're saying it, then thats a special talent. The knowledge comes from my roots in Hip Hop. In the beginning there were songs like "The Message", "The Breaks", then Public Enemy, KRS, X-Clan...those groups raised social consciousness in rap and thats the era i came up in, so naturally i understand the obligation to teach in my music, words are powerful and the things you say carry weight. I had to evolve and im still growing to where i dont get too wild anymore because i've corrupted enough minds.   In 2010, he further expanded on his favourite hip hop artists - in a candid interview with Rapbzdury - labelling Kool G Rap as one of the "top 5 best MCs EVER".   In an interview with Houston Press in 2013, K-Rino listed five of his favourite albums as Stevie Wonder's "Songs In The Key Of Life", Sam Cooke's "Greatest Hits", Prince's "Sign O' The Times", T La Rock's "Lyrical King (From The Boogie Down Bronx)" and Boogie Down Productions' "Criminal Minded".